The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Most solar driven refrigeration systems currently use sorption (liquid-vapor absorption or solid-vapor adsorption) techniques with some storage-facilities (heat storage, cold storage, refrigerant storage, or combination of them) to continue the refrigeration process during nights and periods of low solar insolation. Most of the well-known classical refrigerants are not suitable for such solar/waste-heat driven sorption machines. Moreover, such systems are still bulky and expensive compared to the commonly used vapor-compression refrigeration system.
Vapor-compression refrigeration systems use electrically driven compressors. Some solar-driven absorption systems employ circulating pumps, thus need electronic power supplies, and are not autonomous. Constant-volume heating technology can be used to avoid usage of the circulating pumps as well as the compressors.